How Tom Hiddleston First Learned About Thanos In The Marvel Cinematic Universe

With Avengers: Infinity War's long-awaited release finally upon us, it's worth taking a look back to see how other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have led to this moment. One clear film worth examining is The Avengers, which revealed Thanos to the world and showed us that there was a larger play in store. Of course, that also begs the question of whether or not Tom Hiddleston knew about Thanos when he was playing Loki in The Avengers, and according to the actor, he actually did because he asked Joss Whedon who Loki was working with. In a recent interview with CinemaBlend's own Eric Eisenberg, Hiddleston explained that, yes, he did know about Thanos early on, noting,

Right then. Absolutely. I always have questions, but Joss and I talked about it because Loki had the scepter and the scepter's very powerful. It can infect and infuse people's minds like Hawkeye and Selvig. What does the Tesseract mean and how do I open the portal that lets in the Chitauri and who am I talking to when I'm on my own and who's he working for? So yeah, I knew about Thanos all along.

It looks like it pays to be inquisitive. Loki was the first real big bad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which makes sense, as he was the first major villain The Avengers fought in the comics), but Tom Hiddleston had to know what the larger plan was during the production of Joss Whedon's first Marvel movie. He consistently asked questions and picked Whedon's brain about the bigger picture of Loki's attack on Earth in the 2012 blockbuster, so he was aware of the presence of Thanos as early as the climax of Phase 1.

With that said, although Tom Hiddleston's understanding of Thanos was quite clear in the early days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his understanding of the nature of the Infinity Stones wasn't quite as fully-formed -- though he did eventually get up-to-speed in some talks with Kevin Feige.

In fact, if you want to see more of CinemaBlend's Avengers: Infinity War chat with the Tom Hiddleston, you can check out a clip from the interview, below.

Of course, now it's a matter of waiting to see how all of these plot threads and elements will come together into one cohesive unit. Avengers: Infinity War is undoubtedly the largest Marvel Cinematic Universe film ever assembled, which means the stakes have arguably never been higher for Earth's mightiest heroes and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Thanos is finally taking center stage in his full assault on Earth, so nobody is safe.

On that note, the April 27 release of Avengers: Infinity War is right around the corner, so make sure to check out CinemaBlend's in-depth review of the film (not to mention our full review roundup) to see what critics are saying about the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster!